Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned woman wears a black tricorn hat and a black cloak that covers her shoulders, chest, and much of her face in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our left, and she looks at us from the corners of her dark, almond-shaped eyes. The jet-black hat is set back slightly on her head but covers most of her forehead. A loop goes around a black button on the side to our right, and the corner of a parchment-white decoration, presumably a bow, peeks up from the far side of the hat. Her pale face is like a moon, partially visible within the opening of the cloak that goes from her temples, down her cheeks, and covers her chin to just under her lower lip. The garment is gathered over her chin, and drapes down her chest. The fabric is painted black with green undertones. A glimpse of brown hair peeks out over her left temple, to our right. Her right, gloved hand, on our left, emerges from beneath the fabric to hold a closed fan by her chin. The glove is gossamer white. The sides of the fan's sticks are coral orange, and the fan is streaked with forest green and more orange against cream white across the top, where the fabric is accordioned. The space behind her is dark, pine green, a shade lighter than the woman’s dress.

百度翻译：http://fanyi.baidu.com

   The support is a plain-weave fabric; the weave is very coarse, open, and unusually uneven. The ground is basically red under the dark tones and gray under the lighter tones, except for red under the white-gloved hand. The paint was applied in a rich consistency with strong evidence of the brushstrokes and a general concern with the texture of paint. The application was both wet-over-dry and wet-into-wet in the top layers, especially in the face. Additional texture was produced by using the butt end of the brush to scratch into the wet paint. This was done exclusively to emphasize the folds in the black cloak and does not appear elsewhere. These "incised lines" create an impasto and reveal the red ground; they are visible to the naked eye, but are much more dramatically evident in x-radiographs.

   X-radiographs also reveal several artist's changes. The fan was originally open. Changes in the contours of the open fan suggest that it was thoroughly worked up before being changed. The position of the fingers was altered to accommodate the change in the way that the hand held the closed as opposed to the open fan. Originally a mask sat on the right side of the hat, not the left, and was painted out when the fan was changed. In x-radiographs the figure's right eye appears in deeper shadow than it does on the surface. The figure may have been looking into the open fan, whereas she now looks outward.

   The tacking margins, originally unpainted, have been opened and incorporated into the painted surface. The original dimensions were about 5 cm smaller in each direction. The open weave of the fabric may have caused the pitting in the paint surface, an effect perhaps accentuated by excessive pressure during a lining. There are minor losses and abrasion scattered throughout. The varnish is thick and somewhat discolored. The painting was relined, discolored varnish was removed, and the painting was restored by Stephen Pichetto in 1948.

百度翻译：http://fanyi.baidu.com